Wire finishing



Patented Aug. 10, 1937 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE WIRE FINISHING No Drawing. Application June 17, 1935, Serial No. 27,126

3 Claims.

This invention relates to the production of shiny finish wire, one of the objects being to produce wire with a surface uncontaminated by the traces of lime resulting when conventional dry 5 drawing methods are followed and without involving the messy and malodorous conditions which prevail at the drawing frames in wet drawing operations. Other objects may be inferred from the following disclosure.

According to the invention, rods or wire are properly prepared by cleaning and liming as in dry drawing. A lime coating is applied to the rod or wire surfaces in the form of a thin continuous film. closed in an envelope of copper, tin, brass or any other metal prior to the application of the lime coating, and it may or may not be subsequently baked to remove brittleness, the customers demands or the reductions to be obtained determining these factors.

The wire is then contacted with a mixture or emulsion associated with a substance such as will accelerate thorough wetting of the wire surface in the drawing process. Hence, it is possible with the use of a lubricant, consisting of an emulsion containing a wetting agent, to apply conventional dry drawing equipment to the production of a wire previously drawn only by the wet wire drawing process. The emulsion lubricant is not sufficient to effect a thorough moisture penetration of the rod or wire coating. Some accelerating substance must be used for this purpose. The emulsion lubricant may be the usual soap and water paste modified by the addition of the wetting agent.

Subsequently, the wire is drawn through a reducing die while its coating is wet; the result being a shiny finished wire which is aptly termed mirror finis wire. No coating contaminates its surface, and the operators are not subjected to the disagreeable conditions connected with the wet drawing method.

The wire may or may not be en- Among suitable organic substances for accelerating the wetting of the lime coating are the following: sulphonated orthy butyl phenyl phenol; all sulphonated alkyl, aryl and aryl-alkyl derivatives of phenyl phenol; all higher fatty alcohols and acids, their ethers and esters, both alkyl and arakyl, all sulphonated higher fatty alcohols and acids, their ethers and esters, both alkyl and arakyl, sulphonated abietic acids and their substituted derivatives, sulphonated alkyl- -ated hydrocarbons, aromatic hydrocarbons and their derivatives, including the hydroxy, halogen alkyl, aryl and arakyl substances.

I claim:

1. A method of producing shiny finished wire, including applying a lime coating to said wire, contacting said wire with a wet lubricant associated with an organic substance such as will accelerate wetting of said coating and drawing said wire through a reducing die while said coating is wet.

2. A method of producing shiny finished wire, including applying a coating to said wire of the character used in dry drawing, contacting said wire with a wet lubricant associated with an organic substance such as will accelerate wetting of said coating and drawing said wire through a reducing die while said coating is wet, said substance being selected from the group comprising sulphonated orthy butyl, phenyl phenol; all sulphonated alkyl, aryl, etc.

3. A method of producing shiny finished wire, including applying a lime coating to said wire, contacting said wire with a wet lubricant associated with an organic substance such as will accelerate wetting of said coating and drawing said wire through a reducing die while said coating is wet, said substance being selected from the I group comprising sulphonated orthy butyl, phenyl phenol; all sulphonated alkyl, aryl, etc.

FRANK H. ELLSWORTH. 

